The Butler done it

TOKYO — Gerard Butler has had legions of Japanese female fans ever since he starred in “Phantom of the Opera” in 2004. The 37-year-old Scottish actor says he finds it “cool that all these women are looking at my body.”

Female audiences all over the world are getting a good look at Butler’s body in “300,” his new movie about the legendary 300 Spartans, directed by Zack Snyder and based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The trio was in Japan recently, the last stop of their world promotion tour. “I thought the reception in Brazil was fantastic, but Japan topped it,” said Butler.

“This film is an actor’s dream come true – to be in a commercially and critically successful film. It’s good to hear people other than yourself telling you how you’re your movie is. The reaction has been 10 times more than what I could have expected.”

Butler said he got in shape working with an “insane fitness freak” and bodybuilders. “I guess that was a Spartan’s life, pushing yourself to the limit. Of course, now I have to be much more careful about taking my clothes off because people expect me to have a great body.”

Snyder, who got involved with “300” in 2002, said no studio wanted to make it at first. “So I went off and made ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ After that, we were able to get it up and running. Frank wrote and drew the story so brilliantly that all I had to do was bring it to life.”

The success of “300” around the world has opened many more doors for Snyder and Butler. “Making movies used to be something I wanted to do,” said the director. “Now I can do it for a living.”

Butler said that while “Phantom of the Opera” had been a milestone for him, “300” was much bigger worldwide. “I now have a greater choice of projects and get offered a bigger range of scripts,” he said.

Butler enjoyed his few days in Tokyo with lots of partying. Asked if he could endure the Spartan lifestyle, he replied: “I’d love to say I could, but probably not. In that kind of society, it was very extreme. I do admire the Spartan military tactics, though, which have been handed down over the ages. I noticed that Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe used the techniques in 'Last Samurai.' It worked ... until Masato Harada started machinegunning them all. The bastard.”